In today's world of flexible work and intensive performance assessment, careers are often measured in months rather than decades.

"It's the people, stupid!" Nigel Nicholson, professor of organizational behaviour at the London Business School, offers this important piece of advice to anyone starting a new job. "It's not the job, it's the people in the organization," he explains. "Get to know them, get to know their perspectives, get to understand what's driving them, get to figure out what the psychological issues are, what the tensions are. The more you know, the better."

Nicholson has a simple rule about what people should bring to an organization:" I call it 'VIP': vision, identity and passion. If you can bring some of all those things with you, then you will find it easier to communicate in future." What does he think is the most important thing to remember in the first 100 days? "Don't worry about whether you're going to be able to do the job or not. That's never the issue. It's the relationships that matter; the first thing is, think about the relationships."

If you're planning to change jobs or start a new career, you need to understand the transition cycle, says Professor Nigel Nicholson of the London Business School. He identifies four specific phases requiring strategies for the first 100 days and beyond:

1 Preparation

Get to know the company and organizational culture you are joining, the products/services it offers, and its key people.

2 Encounter

Listen and learn when you start your new job. Keep your eyes open and ask questions, even if they seem stupid or you already know the answers. You won't get another chance to question as openly as this.

3 Adjustment

In this phase, you aim to reduce differences between you and the organiztional environment by changing either the environment or your behaviour.

4 Stabilization

Finally, you put in place the things that are going to hold your new situation together and make you part of the organization--before you move on to the next stage of preparation for another change.

在當今這個工作靈活多樣、業績評估又十分苛刻的世界里，職業生涯通常是以月份而不是以年為單位計算的。

“人才是關鍵，傻瓜！”這是倫敦商學院的組織行為學教授奈杰爾尼克爾森對職場新人提出的一條重要建議。“關鍵不在于工作，而在于公司里的人，”他解釋道，“去了解他們，了解他們的看法、動機，找出有哪些心理問題，壓力又是什么。你了解得越多越好。”
尼克爾森有一個簡單的原則來概括人們應該為一家企業帶來什么。“我把它稱作‘VIP’法則，即眼界、個性及熱情。如果所有這些東西在你身上都能找到一些，你就會發現在日后的工作中溝通起來更為容易。”在他看來，什么才是職場頭一百天里最應該銘記的頭等大事呢？“別去擔心你是否能夠勝任這份工作。這從來都不是問題。最關鍵的是人際關系。首要的一點就是考慮人際關系。”

如果你正在考慮換工作或是開始新的職業生涯，你需要了解職場轉變周期，倫敦商學院的奈杰爾尼克爾森教授說。他提出，在入職頭一百天以及之后的時間里，有四個階段需要運用特殊戰略：

1.準備

了解你即將加入的公司及其企業文化，了解公司的產品/服務以及公司中的重要人物。

2. 體驗

開始新的工作后要多傾聽，多學習。睜大雙眼，多問問題，即使問題顯得很蠢，或是你早已知道答案。因為你不會再有可以這樣坦誠提問的機會了。

3. 調整

在這個階段，你的目標是通過改變環境或者自身行為來減少你和企業氛圍的差別。

4. 穩定

最后，把那些構成你的新局面、令你成為公司一分子的因素歸位——直到你要為下一次換工作做準備為止。